Untitled Sermon (8)

Maturity

Back in the early 2000s Virginia Medical Monthly did a profile on personality regression

A woman lost her husband at 81 and began to regress until she died curled up like a baby drinking milk

Christians, too, can suffer from a lack of maturity- either because they fail to develop, or they regress in their maturity

“3 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready”

Why should we mature as Christians?

A mature Christian connects intimately with God

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

A mature Christian is a blessing to others

A prayer for Spiritual Maturity

Paul begins his letter to the Christians of Philippi with a prayer for their maturity that can serve as a model for us as we pray for our maturity and the maturity of others.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

your love may abound more and more

Pray for a love that grows (v9a)

Love is like a muscle- it grows with exercise.

Love is a combination of choice and emotion

Sometimes the best way to learn to love your neighbor is just to act like it.

God is the only being capable of perfect love- Paul is asking us to pray to be more like God

Pray for deeper discernment (v9b-10)

Vacationing in Arizona, a group of British tourists spots a cowboy by the side of the road, with his ear to the ground.

"What’s going on?" they asked.

"Two horses, one gray-one chestnut, are pulling a wagon carrying 2 men,” the cowboy says.

"One man is wearing a red shirt and the other a black shirt." "They’re heading east."

"Wow, You can tell all that just by listening to the ground?" says one of the tourists.

"No" replies the cowboy. "They just ran over me."

Discernment can be defined as the ability to judge good from evil

Paul lists Discernment as a Spiritual Gift in

This is more like a greater ability to discern

I love answering questions, but there are times that you have to be able to figure it out

Do you answer you kids questions to keep them immature or to help build them up?

If we never learn to discern we will never be fully mature in Christ

Pray for a righteous character

Righteous- morally pure or virtuous

The Chinese character for the word righteousness is the character for lamb placed over the character for me

The Bible tells us that righteousness comes by faith ()

A righteous character dose not necessarily mean perfect- but one that is grounded in faith and seen through the lens of Christ

The end goal- Glory and Praise to God

Too many times our desire to grow is self centered, but the main goal should be to bring praise and honor to Christ

Your last name.

A few years back the Virginia Medical Magazine did an article on Personality regression, and they highlighted a woman from northern Va that suffered from this condition. Personality regression is when a traumatic event causes a person to regress in mental or emotional ability. This lady had lost her husband when she was 81 years old. Because of this emotional trauma she began to regress= first she began to go through a midlife crisis, then she acted like a 30 year old, then a teenager, all the way down to an infant. Within 18 months of her husband’s death she did curled up in a ball sipping a bottle like a 3 month old baby.

It sure can be frustrating when someone does not act their age! I often find myself reminding my boys that they are growing up and need to make sure their behavior matches their age. After all, they need to act their age.

Immaturity is just as frustrating in Spiritual terms. As Christians, we are called to grow in maturity in Christ, just like children are to grow and mature in terms of the world. Sometimes Christians fail to develop spiritual maturity, and other times, like the woman in our opening story, some event in their lives causes them to regress in spiritual maturity. In either case, we know that God desires for us to grow in maturity. Listen to Paul’s words to the church in Corinth about maturity:

 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready”

“3 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready”

So, today we are going to look at today’s passage in see how Paul prays a prayer of maturity over his friends at Philippi. Paul is asking for some pretty specific things on their behalf.

This is something for us to consider as we study this passage today, this prayer is a beautiful way for us to pray for ourselves and our brothers and sisters. Many of us have agreed to pray for our friends or neighbors, but have you ever struggled what to pray for them? You’re looking for something more than just “God, bless them” If that is you, then take note of this passage today.

First, pray for a love that grows.